Something that has helped me serve you as a reader, and my coaching and presentation clients, as well as those in our network, is having a plan.

Plans come in various forms and they are tweakable entities.

What is your plan for Q2?

Wanna look into what is working for us?

One of the team came up with a nifty idea a couple of years ago that we call, The 52 Week plan and as you can deduce, it’s a full year set out into 52 weeks. The beauty of doing this is that we have each month and each week numbered and we know the “Big” events as well as the small ones because everything is color coded.

And, it’s not all we need.

Mostly because looking that far out is kind of intimidating with all that time, and it’s easy when something is far enough away to put it in the back of your mind…

So we now break our 52-week plan into 13-week segments – or a quarter of the year and this is where the deep things happen, where the results are tracked and where we can put all the tasks to events and goals.

Here is something else we do that you might incorporate into your planning.

Forecast out 13 weeks – and ask yourself these questions

On X date (for this quarter it’s on June 30th)

I will feel extremely happy because X has happened –

X in my personal life

X in my relational life

X in my professional life or business

Then, get with someone on your team and work backward on all that must happen weekly to attain that goal.

Let me know how it goes or if you do something better. We are all about tweaking!

It turns out that my Papillion, Stewart, failed the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen trail, twice in his youth.

Years ago, when I brought him home my family was going through some hard times. We had two young boys and through the turmoil I fear they were less than gentle with Stewart and he developed an aversion to being touched or picked up, though he is a very loving and cuddly dog now.

You can probably already guess that even though he did all the steps and challenges perfectly, he failed the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen test because regardless of how well behaved he was, he wouldn’t let the judge touch him. I was heartbroken, especially because the group I was with all passed and there were many other dogs much less well-behaved that made it through.

More training, more time and yet, he failed again.

So I decided it was okay for him and me to simply live life well and not worry about it. I work with the same group of dog handlers still and what I didn’t realize is that whenever Good Citizen came up I would quip about my dog being a bad citizen, or that we were failures. I did it jokingly and it’s been over 9 years ago now so it’s been a running joke for a long time.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, during our monthly meetup, Sandy, the trainer, who isn’t a trainer for this, suggested that since some of the members were going for the Good Citizen certificate wouldn’t it be fun if all of us participated in going through all the challenges?

I quipped as usual, “Even the bad citizen?”

She led everyone through all the steps – and even when I suggested I hold one of the student dogs, she hushed me saying, “You go too and leave Stewart here.” So I did.

Imagine my surprise when after it was all over, Sandy said proudly, “It’s my honor to award Stewart the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen Certificate!” He and I were being judged the whole time and several of the others in the group were in on it to make sure it was done officially.

Stewart could have cared less – then or now, but I have found some healing in the heeling. And isn’t that what having pets is all about?

Lesson: Is there someone in your world who could use some extra healing? Maybe a simple bit of heeling will do the trick, reach out, ask. It turns out, that everything does matter.

Top Women in the Pet Industry Magazine

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Call for Nominations for 2018 Woman of the Year

The Pet Industry Woman of the Year is in for AMAZING things! Some of them are:

A full year of media and executive coaching with WIPIN President Shawna Schuh, a Certified Speaking Professional and Executive Coach;

Exposure in pet industry media outlets throughout the year;

A feature on the cover of the WIPIN Top Women in the Pet Industry Winter Magazine;

Appearances and recognition at pet industry events;

Gifts and treats provided by other top women in the pet industry.

Nominations will be accepted now, 2018 and the entry fee is $59 for WIPIN members and $99 for non-members. (please note – this nominal fee is to support doing a not-to-be missed awards show when winners are announced live)

There are five (5) Categories in the Pet Industry Woman of the Year – please nominate yourself in one of these categories only – there will be a winner in each of the categories and then out of these five an overall Pet Industry Woman of the Year will be announced.

Any Pet Industry Woman of the Year is: Inspirational, exhibits leadership skills, has drive, knows about giving and connecting and is creating a wonderful reputation for herself.

Advocate Category – This woman is a giver at heart and is an advocate for pets – She has or does something to benefit animals and the humans that love them.

Entrepreneur Category – One business or many – this woman is the big thinker and has a team or employees to help make her vision happen and grow.

Rising Star Category – This woman is new to the pet space or is in a new role. Rapid growth and high performance are key to why she is a rising star.

Solopreneur Category – Doing it all and doing it with grace describes this woman. She is a solo shop – though of course is smart about hiring her CPA and other businesses services. The rest of the time she does her business on her own.

You are a woman in the pet industry, you are doing great things – YOU are the most qualified to tell your story – Step up and do this now – Just answering the questions will help you on your journey and isn’t getting better your goal? Nominate yourself now!